


Lost Boy

by Joonnami



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), Stray Kids (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, F/M, Goddesses, Gods, Greek Mythology - Freeform, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Tags as we go, bts as greek gods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joonnami/pseuds/Joonnami
Summary: Taehyung has the ability to go into any creative work he sees fit. There are restrictions with this, however. He has 24 hours to return back to Earth, or else he ends up stuck in that alternate universe forever. But this time, his only way home ends up closing while he's in a Greek universe, and his time is running out to return home. Luckily, he has someone to try to help him.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Short and boring, yes, but the second chapter will be longer and more interesting! Bear with me. Also, lemme know of anything I missed!

Being a senior, in America, Taehyung had the choice to decide on what his second-to-last class of the day would be. That was new to him, but he liked it nonetheless. Since he had done the majority of his required classes through his freshman and Junior years, he didn’t have to fill up his schedule fully. He had seven classes(hours) a day, and only three, maybe four, really mattered. Despite this, he still tried in all of them. Well, most of them. He was cursed with having two math classes, one being Pre-calculus and the other Physics, but only the former counted towards his graduation. Admittedly, he didn’t try hard in physics, but he tried enough to not raise suspicion from his parents. 

For his sixth hour, he had picked mythology, but the class only started the second semester of the year, and he couldn't wait. He didn’t know that that was a class he could choose, but when he saw it on his re enrollment form at the end of his Junior year, he immediately chose it. That was a class that didn’t count, but he figured it’d be interesting. That way, the work wouldn’t feel like work, right? 

Well, the first semester ends soon. His excitement for the new class was crushed once he realized that his grades were hanging on by a thread. And that wouldn’t sit right. If he didn’t get his grades up before the end of the semester, that’d be his final grade for it. 

Taehyung taps his pencil on his desk rapidly, ready to be released for the day. He couldn’t remain still, knowing that this is the last class of the day. He’s probably annoying the people around him, especially the girl next to him, but he couldn’t care less. His last class is Pre-calculus, and it bores him to no end. 

He couldn’t understand math in the slightest. When it was just adding numbers, that was fine. When they started adding division and multiplication signs, that was fine. When they started adding numbers and parenthesis, that’s when he knew he was destined to fail. He almost did a few times, but because of his personality, he was able to easily become a teacher’s pet. That allowed him some luxury, and he was grateful. Sure, he wouldn’t know the material well later in life, but that didn’t matter, right? It’s not like he was going to be solving polynomials for a day job. He’d be fine. 

“Can you please stop that?” The girl next to him, Veronica, complains. It sounded more like a statement rather than a question. 

Mentally Taehyung rolls his eyes. He stops tapping his pencil, though, opting for bouncing his leg under the table. 

He doesn’t like her, but he bears her presence for the 49 minutes he has to be in class. It’s the shortest hour of the day, so he tries to pay her no mind whenever she’s unnecessarily rude to him. Sometimes, she’d purposely try to get on his nerves, and he always falls for it, and then he gets himself upset, and that ruins his mood for the whole class. A few times before, they’ve bickered, but the teacher got involved early enough for it to not get serious. Not that Taehyung would let it get that serious. He’d like to think he has self control. 

She’d been rude to him ever since and his family moved here from Korea and he just didn’t understand why. He tried to be nice to her and understand the American school system simultaneously, but she’d been trying to make him feel stupid ever since they first met. Several times did she ask him questions, but the questions were nothing more than a disguise for subtly making fun of him. She wasn’t actually interested in Korea, or anything about Taehyung at all, but he didn’t realize it. He hadn’t realized that that’s what she was doing until his best friend pointed it out, and then he started hating her. He never understood her attitude towards him, but he tried to pay it no mind.

Once, she had embarrassed him in front of the whole class, and he’d never forget it. It’s not like she stood in front of the class and did it, but she might as well have, since it was quiet, and you could only hear the two of them talking at the front of the class. 

_“You don’t know the answer?” Veronica asks, watching Taehyung struggle with the work the teacher assigned._

_Taehyung only shook his head, bouncing his leg under the table. Of course he didn’t know the answer, that much was obvious. If he knew, would he be sitting here visibly nervous? He didn’t have much time left, and he still had several questions he had skipped. He knew he wouldn’t finish, and this work would just add to the ever-growing unfinished worksheets.People always say “do all the easy ones, and come back to the ones you don’t know” but they never talk about what to do if all of the problems are ones you don’t know._

_“I thought you were good at math?”_

_He shook his head again. “I’m bad at math. Why’d you think that?”_

_She shrugged and went back to playing with her pencil. “Just a thought.”_

_Taehyung didn’t respond after that. He simply started on his problems again. After a few more minutes, the teacher called time, and Taehyung audibley groaned. He was more anxious than annoyed, though. He couldn’t stop thinking about how these missing answers would affect him and his grade._

_Once all of the papers were collected and the bell rang, Taehyung wasted no time in meeting his best friend, Lisa outside of the classroom._

_After a few moments, Lisa spoke. “You know she was being racist when she did that, right?” Lisa asked, staring at the ground as both she and Taehyung walked together._

_“What?” Taehyung asked._

_Lisa sighed. “Veronica. When she expected you to know how to do math. Tae, she was being racist.”_

_“Oh.” Was all he could say. He hadn’t processed that that was racism. He hadn’t even thought about it all that much, but now that Lisa had brought it up, it was obvious. Why he hadn’t caught onto that when it happened is a mystery to him. And now he felt so stupid and embarrassed thinking of the fact that Veronica basically made him look foolish in front of everyone else. Maybe no one else thought it was that serious, but everyone else probably knew what she was doing, except him. And that made him look even dumber._

That was Sophomore year. 

Recently, though, he’s been getting better at ignoring her. He’d chalk that up to the fact that he desperately needed to focus on his work. He’d been falling behind recently, and he couldn’t understand why. He really needed to get his grades up, because being a teacher’s pet can only get you so far. 

After who knows how long, the chime of the bell sounds and Taehyung begins to put all of his things away. Normally, He would’ve done it right before the bell would’ve rung, but the teacher had been adamant about phones being put away for this hour, so he couldn’t check the time. He couldn’t concentrate during class anyway, his mind was too focused on getting home. 

Once outside of class, he met up with Lisa, as per usual. Even though they have the same class together, she still always made it out first so he had to catch up with her. 

It has a lot to do with the fact that Lisa is always ready before class is even over. Even without her phone, she still knows when it’s going to end. But that’s just how Lisa is, and not just at school. She’s always prepared, organized, and ready for anything, unlike Taehyung. It’s something he envied, and strived to mimic. It never worked out for him, though. 

He and Lisa don’t have a lot in common. Maybe they’re even completely opposites, but that’s why they worked so well. Taehyung is sure he’d go insane if he had someone exactly like him as his best friend. Whenever he thinks about how different he and Lisa are, and how he wishes they’d have more in common, he reminds himself of how annoying it’d be to have a twin personality. Two Taehyungs might be someone’s dream reality, but not his. 

“I don’t know what to do for my birthday,” Lisa speaks, breaking the silence around them. Well, it wasn’t completely silent, considering they were finally outside now. But the silence within their own bubble was broken. 

“It’s January,” He reminds her.

Lisa exaggerates a sigh, “I wanna start early, so if I wanna do something extra, I have time to plan it.”

“Just go out to eat. That’s what I did,” Taehyung speaks. It’s usually what he does, and he enjoys it every time. Sometimes he went home with Lisa, and then they’d go out to eat later. Other times, he’d skip school and stay home, and then meet up with Lisa at a restaurant later in the day. Even before he met Lisa, or even came to America at all, that’s still what he did. It’s not that he couldn’t do anything different, he’d just rather do something simple. 

Lisa makes a sound next to him, and then says, “Your birthday is in winter. That’s all you can do.” She lets out a small laugh. 

“And?” He laughs, too. Maybe that is another explanation for his lack of plans every year. Maybe. 

“I really wanna do something big, cause it’s my 18th, but I don’t know what to do. There’s nothing to do here.”

“You have two months figure that out,” he reassures her, as he watches the flurries of snow falling softly from the sky. It hadn’t snowed fully yet, despite it being winter for almost two months. Sometimes it would be cold enough for it to snow lightly, but it never inconvenienced anyone, as it melted once it touched the ground. 

“Yeah, but it’s better to be safe that sorry—” A sound from Lisa’s phone interrupts her while she’s talking, and she reaches in her pocket to retrieve it. She reads it, and a second later, she looks up and waves all too cheerily. 

Following her gaze, Taehyung sees someone in the distance waving back to his friend. He isn’t sure who it is, so he asks, “Who is that?” 

With a smile on her face, Lisa turns to Taehyung. She tucks some of her hair behind her ear before speaking, “Hyunjin. You don’t know him?”

“Oh,” He says. Of course he knows of Hyunjin, but he doesn’t know him. He had seen him sometimes, even heard his name, but never talked or interacted with him. He especially had never seen Lisa talk to him either. 

“What grade is he in?” He asks. Hyunjin visibly looks young, so it’s reasonable for Taehyung to believe that he’s a freshman or sophomore. 

“He’s a junior.” She goes back to her phone, typing a message. After about a minute, she says, “Tae… What if I come over tomorrow, instead?”

Furrowing his eyebrows, he questions, “Why?” He knows the reason without her saying it.

She didn’t answer right away. “Because Hyunjin wants to hang out today. And I figured it’d be okay, because you and me are always together.” And that was true. The longest they’ve ever spent apart was three days. 

“But Lisa we need to study, and you know I can’t do it without you,” He tries to reason. They had made plans in Sophomore year to always study together whenever finals were near, and they always passed that way. Without someone to map things out to him, he can’t remember anything. Without someone to recite things back to Lisa, she didn’t remember them, either. That’s exactly why they came to the conclusion that they needed to work together. He needed her now more than ever, but instead, she was choosing to raincheck. 

She puts her phone away, and then stands in front of Tae, grabbing both of his hands. “I know. It’s just one night, Tae. And I promise we can study tomorrow.” She begins walking backwards, putting distance between the both of them. 

“Lisa, the finals are in—”

“Tomorrow, Tae, I promise!” And with that, she leaves him for a smiling Hyunjin in the distance. 

Taehyung sighs, and puts his hands in his pockets. This isn’t first time Lisa ditched him for other plans, but he knows that she’ll come through in the end. Besides, it was only one day, and she promised that they’d study together tomorrow. Their grades would be fine, though. Lisa always keeps promises, so he has nothing to worry about. Though, that doesn’t console his stomach from doing flips. 

At that moment, he spots his dad’s car, and makes a beeline for it. 

Once he reaches the car, he goes for the backseat instead of the front seat. He knows his father will attempt conversation if he sits up front. And as much as he loves talking to his dad, he’d rather be left to his thoughts for today. It was something they never discussed, more of a silent thing between them, but whenever Taehyung was open to conversation, he’d sit up front. 

Taehyung places his elbow on the sill of the car window, and stares out at the passing world on the outside. He barely registers the quick images of the people walking that he will never see again, and the buildings that housed stories he doesn’t care to learn. His mind’s too preoccupied on his future classes to take in his surroundings.

Despite the upbeat music playing throughout the car, he can barely hear. He can’t stop thinking about his mythology class next semester, and what it could entail. The only mythology he had actually been taught was Korean mythology, and that wasn’t a class. Or rather, he had heard the stories from his family and family friends. Even then, he had been interested in it. So much that he could go on and on about Korean mythology to a foreigner. And now, he has a chance to learn about mythology that comes from other places in the world. He had always wanted to look into Greek and Roman mythology, but the amount of times he forgot were numerous. He knew of a few Gods, within Greek and Roman mythology, though not too many Goddesses. Emphasis on “few”, considering he only knows of Zeus and Poseidon. Maybe even Hercules and Cupid, if they count. 

 

***

 

It just didn’t make sense. Well, it did, but it didn’t. The ability to be able to enter any creative work, be it books, paintings, drawings, movies, shows, whatever, was an enigma in itself. He didn’t know of any other humans who could do it, so why could he? He didn’t think anything was special about him, so the fact that he could do this, was unexplainable. He enjoyed it, of course, but it still felt weird sometimes. 

The universes he explored always felt like second homes for him. They allowed him an escape from his regular, stressful, yet boring, life. If he were honest, he preferred the universe he ventured in, rather than reality. No surprise there. Whenever he isn’t sitting in his room scrolling through his news feeds for hours, wishing for something to do, he’s worrying about college. As much as he didn’t want to go to college, he didn’t really have a choice. He’d much rather spend a few extra years studying, than still be working at the same minimum wage job in 40 years. The thought of trying to piece his future together at such a young age was too much sometimes. 

When he wasn’t using his ability as a means of escape, he saw it as a free vacation. Yes, it was limited, and he could only do it once a day, but it was better than paying for a trip. Other people spent hundreds on trips to places they could never afford to live in, while Taehyung gets to visit those places for free. 

This is exactly why he hopes that his teacher will supply books for the class during Mythology, because the urge to explore that universe is unwavering. Of course, he could easily do his own research and look for works, but where’s the fun in that? He’d be allowed to venture an unknown world, and, not to mention, how much easier it’d be for him to learn the material. The last time he did that in History, he passed the exams with flying colors. Though, he hated having to watch Americans go through everything they did. He was grateful that it wasn’t happening in current times, but they called it history for a reason.

Maybe he wouldn’t be failing his math classes if he could apply his ability there. But it’s not like he can hop into a math book. Even if he could, he’d hate it. Math is as interesting as watching grass grow, and he was pretty sure that all he’d see was numbers. And he’s positive that a world filled with numbers and division signs would be his own personal hell. 

Being able to do this also meant that there were way too many close calls. “Close calls” meaning that he’d almost ended up being stuck in these universes, but somehow he was able to make it back to the real world before it actually happened. 24 hours is the limit. Anything longer than that and you’re stuck in that alternate universe forever. Besides that, your way back to the real world is only there as long as the work you’re in hasn’t ended, or been turned off. That meaning: the book cannot close, the T.V. cannot be turned off, and the painting cannot be ruined. 

There are so many cautions when it comes to this, but Taehyung enjoyed every second of it. He loved the close calls where he got out with a few seconds to spare. He loved it when he pissed off characters, and he’d escape back to Earth clutching his stomach with laughter. He enjoyed meeting his favorite characters and taking pictures with them on his phone, only for the character to not be next to him when he looked back at the image when he was back at home. As weird as all of it was, he enjoyed it more than anything else in the world. 

When he had found out that he could do this, the possibilities seemed so endless to him. Netflix was his safe haven. Emphasis on “safe”, considering that he could safely go back and forth without worrying about his computer catching a virus. None of the pirating websites were secure enough to attempt anything. 

Although he could explore drawings and paintings as well, he chose not to. His first time doing it, he was bored out of his mind. With it being a still figure, that’s exactly what everything entailed. Nothing in those universes moved, excluding him. Pointless, really, but it’s the thought that counts. When he had first figured out that he could go into pictures as well, it had been at his friend’s house. Unlike his family, they had huge portraits around their house. Some of their many, extensive family members, and others that looked like they were bought from a garage sale-- something that you’d buy simply to say you owned. Either way, it was obvious that they all held very little sentiment and didn’t have any real meaning.

One of them caught his attention, though. He’d seen it in the background of a show once, and he thought it looked interesting. He hadn’t thought it’d work, but the need to just see what would happen had made him curious to at least try. Being that it was hanging on a wall, it didn’t allow him much freedom, but due to his height, he was allowed to do just enough. He was able to look into the painting, and it had been… interesting. The universe stood at a standstill, and everything was made from paint strokes. No surprise there. Despite this, it didn’t actually pique his interest at all. He was lucky enough to exit the painting before his friend caught him, though it did make his friend suspicious of him. Maybe not of his ability, but Taehyung could tell his friend knew something was up. 

He figured he had to keep this to himself, though. Well, Lisa knew, but she was the only other person. He wasn’t sure how anyone else would react, but he didn’t care to find out. They probably wouldn’t report him to the government or anything, but the whole aspect of having hundreds of questions thrown at him didn’t interest him. He could see all the questions just waiting to be answered, but he just didn’t have the answers. He knew how it happened but he didn’t know why it happened. 

He liked to test his luck, though, by going into one of the far places in the library, those places that high school kids would retreat to for utter privacy, and he’d explore some of the books there. He’d nearly gotten caught by the librarian, so he didn’t test his luck a second time. Ever since then, he could feel the librarian’s eyes burning holes into him. That’s exactly why he never stayed at the library for longer than he needed to. The occasional trip to check out and return school books warranted enough awkward interactions, and that only made him more eager for graduation. 

If he was being honest, he was pretty sure the librarian didn’t like him in general, and that incident just added to her growing list of suspicions about him. Maybe she just didn’t like anyone here, but he was sure that it’s just him that she has a vendetta against. He’s unsure why though, since he’s never done anything to her. Regardless, he chose to treat her no differently than he did anyone else. 

 

***

 

He stretches his arms high above his head, working out any kinks he may have, which were just a side effect of traveling. A minor downside, but it’s not that big of an issue. This time, he was coming back from one of the Harry Potter books. He didn’t remember which one-- since there were a numerous amount of them, and he didn’t care to look before putting it away, either. It was one of the books he checked out from the library. One he didn’t plan on returning either. 

All he knows is that he wanted to see how interesting it was, and if he could hold his own against the villains there. In the end, he couldn’t, but that’s besides the point. His time was cut short when Hermione had to save him for the umpteenth time, and he figured that would be the perfect time to hang it up and go back to being a regular person again. He’d go back, one day. Not one day soon, but eventually. And when he did, he wouldn’t let Hermione have even the slightest chance of showing him up. 

The sound of his dog’s barking brings Taehyung’s mind back to the real world. Sometimes he forgets he has a dog, because of the amount of time he spends in alternate universes, but he always makes it up to Yeontan, his dog, every time he gets back. 

Looking down at his phone, Taehyung takes notice of the time, 7:29 pm it reads, and he decides right now would be a perfect time to get Yeontan’s walk out of the way, at least before Yeontan goes on the carpet. And God knows that Taehyung doesn’t want to scrub anything out of the carpet. Again. 

The only thing he hated more than cleaning up after his dog was hearing his parents make a big deal about it. Of course anyone would be upset, but it still gives Taehyung a migraine hearing his mom complain. She never yelled at him about his dog, but she still didn’t care for Yeontan. 

Taehyung walks out of his room, greets his parents, and starts to put on his coat. Then, he picks up the leash hanging on one of the hooks by the door, and he kneels down to attach the hook to Yeontan’s collar. After dealing with a yappy dog for too long, he’s finally able to get the leash on him. With that, he stands and heads out.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae's first trip

In the end Lisa kept her promise of coming over the next day to study. Before they began studying she mentioned how much fun she had with Hyunjin. Several times Lisa stopped to text someone-- Hyunjin most likely-- Taehyung had been curious about what Hyunjin meant to Lisa but he decided to not address it. 

The following days, they settled into their usual routine of studying every day. These days were filled with many “I’m not gonna remember this shit, Lisa”s and “that doesn’t even make sense, Tae”s. Taehyung wanted to give up several times and just hope that he would magically pass his exams, but just like every year before that, they successfully got through it. Regardless of how the material got harder they were able to adjust. Like they always did. 

He felt jittery the night before exams, it was a mix of nervousness and excitement. He was somewhat looking forward to the exams but mostly because he knew he would finally be getting them over with. He tried to study a little bit before bed but ended up staying up much later than he intended and fell asleep.

It felt like he had just closed his eyes but alas, his alarm went off this morning just like every other day. Despite being overwhelmingly tired, he got up and got ready. His father drove him to school as usual and he met up with Lisa outside of their first class. This time Hyunjin had been with her so Taehyung exchanged greetings with him. Taehyung had tried to engage in conversation with both of them before class, but it seemed as though only Lisa paid attention to what he was saying. It gave him a strange feeling but he decided to not pay attention to it. 

And now he’s here waiting at his desk. He’s nervous but not as much as he was before. He knows he’s going to pass, thanks to Lisa, but the feeling of doubt is still there. Instead, he tries to fill himself with false confidence and nonchalance. But before he can think more about it the bell rings and he prepares to be stuck in class for the next hour and a half. 

 

 

***

 

 

The next day was the same routine but different classes. 

The third day, Hyunjin claimed that he had to talk to his counselor before class would start and both Taehyung and Lisa acknowledged it. Taehyung took that opportunity to address his presence.

“Is this gonna be every day?” Taehyung asks, not meaning for the question to sound as rude as it does. 

“What?” Lisa blinks. “No, you know we only test for three days.” 

Mentally Taehyung rolls his eyes. “No, I mean like--” he spares a glance behind him to make sure Hyunjin is gone-- “him being here every day.” 

Lisa breaks eye contact with Taehyung and furrows her eyebrows. “Well I… hope so? Why?”

“Lisa, it’s obvious he doesn’t like me.” And it’s true, at least in Taehyung’s eyes. It’s evident to him that Hyunjin feels some way towards him, but he doesn’t understand why. At first he wrote it off as a misunderstanding, but it had been a recurring pattern of small things. Hyunjin chose to only address Lisa whenever he spoke, pretending that only he and Lisa were there. He’d ignore Taehyung whenever he spoke unless it was directly to him, and only then did he respond but with nonchalant one-word answers. Whenever Lisa was focused on whatever Taehyung was saying, Hyunjin would look and focus his attention elsewhere. Those weren’t huge instances but Taehyung could feel the animosity coming from Hyunjin from miles away. 

“Why do you think that?” 

Taehyung shakes his head. “He acts like I don’t even exist, Lisa. I talk to him and he acts like he can’t hear all of a sudden. I liked it better when it was just us.” 

“Tae, that’s not true. Hyunjin is the nicest person I’ve ever met. Besides you. He probably just has to warm up to you.” She gives a small smile. “He just met you. He doesn’t even know you to not like you.” She doesn’t address his last sentence. 

“Lisa…”

She grabs his hand, attempting to reassure him. “Tae, Hyunjin isn’t that type of person. I promise. Don’t worry about that.” 

He nods and chooses to let her believe that. As much as he wants to like Hyunjin, he trusts his feelings more. It had only been him and Lisa for the duration of the school year, and he liked it that way too. He preferred the two of them together, and no third person. There is also the fact that he doesn’t want to learn about a new person or put in the effort to make a new friendship. It sounds rude of him, but it’s true. He already knows Lisa inside and out, and that took years. He’d rather not spend, waste, years getting to know Hyunjin. That would be futile regardless since he believes the feeling of dislike is mutual. 

The bell rings as soon as Hyunjin returns. 

 

***

 

 

The initial worry he had was slowly replaced with impatience. He hated the fact that even when he was done with his exams, he had to wait for everyone else. And even then they all had to sit in class until the hour was up. It felt really stupid to him considering the fact that everyone could leave sooner if they were dismissed as soon as everyone was finished. 

But that was in the past now. The exams were over and he could breathe finally. He would start over with fresh grades and this semester he wouldn’t procrastinate. Half of this motivation was for himself and the other for the approval from his parents. 

When he saw his scores he wasn’t surprised. They were as good as he needed them to be, but not favorable enough. He ended up getting an average grade of a C for the semester but he accepted it. He’d take that over failing any day. It was also a lesson to do better the second semester because he didn’t want to walk the thin line between passing and failing again. It made him too anxious. He also knew that he shouldn’t dwell on the grade no matter how much he wanted to because he couldn’t change it. He knew from experience that stressing over something set in stone will just drive you crazy if you let it. 

But he couldn’t help it. His parents expect Bs at the minimum and even if he accepted the grade he knew his parents wouldn’t. Although he eventually came to accept the his grades, he can’t help the feeling of wanting to appease his parents. If he looks bad in any way then the whole family does. This is bigger than him no matter what he thinks. How would other people look at the Kim family if their oldest son couldn’t even do well in high school? 

That’s how he plans to motivate himself to do well in school. Any time he wants to be lazy and procrastinate, he’ll remember how this doesn’t only affect him. However he knows that just like new years resolutions, he will fall through.

 

 

***

 

 

The Sunday following the week of exams he feels jittery once again. However, this time, it’s void of all nervousness. Now that he had passed he could finally start his long-awaited class on Monday. He’d randomly think of it over the weekend and a brief sensation of frisson would wash over him. It wasn’t an outwards, bouncing excitement, but more of an anticipation he could feel in his stomach. Of course he felt somewhat silly being this excited about a class. Any regular student would bemoan having to attend school after the weekend and he knows that. But with him it’s different. He’d like to think that anyone else would feel the same if they could even attempt what he could. And that’s exactly what he thought about when he went sleep that night.

 

***

 

Just like every other day he leaves his fifth class of the day and heads to his sixth. Except this time it’s his first day of mythology and not a boring class he dreaded anymore. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to this all morning.

His excitement dimmed when the class started because unfortunately for him, the teacher ran out of books before he even got one. A few students went without them but he wasn’t concerned over that now. He had been waiting so long for this and now the teacher had miscounted the number of students in her class. Not only was he missing out on an opportunity, but he knows that she always assigns work on first days. 

“How am I supposed to-- how are we supposed to do the work,” He asks the teacher, “without books?” 

She goes back to her desk and straightens up stray papers there. Without making eye contact with Taehyung, she says, “There are enough people with books that you can share. Share with the person next to you.”

In all honesty he doesn’t want to do that. He wants his own, not to borrow someone else’s. He can’t take someone else’s book home nor procrastinate in class if he wanted to. Now he’d have to invade somebody else’s space and then feel bad about it. Instead of moving his desk over, he tries, “Can I at least go check in the library?”

The teacher doesn’t reply for a few seconds, before sighing. She nods while ripping off a hall pass from the stack of passes, and begins to write Taehyung one to the library. After filling it out she hands it over to him. He takes it and makes sure that he doesn’t let the door slam when he leaves.

He knocks on the closed library doors and braces for the interaction. He knew what was going to happen before it even happened but he had to try anyways. The doors were always closed after lunch and you’d have to knock in order to be let in. Whenever the librarian did this she only let in students she knew would be quiet, turning down everyone else. Taehyung knew he’d be just like everyone else. 

Finally, the doors open enough for the librarian’s face to be visible. As soon as she sees Taehyung she tries to close the doors again but he manages to stop the door with his foot. 

With a heavy sigh the librarian just stares at him. 

“I need a book for my mythology class,” he says in a pleading voice. 

Without missing a beat, she says, “We don’t have any.”

He doesn’t know for sure if she’s lying or not. It wouldn’t be the first time, though. “You didn’t even check.”

“I don’t have to. I already know.” And with that, she kicks Taehyung’s foot from the door and closes it. 

He stares at the closed doors for a few seconds then sighs angrily. Sometimes she really irked Taehyung’s nerves but he’d still never treat her the same way she treated him. He just isn’t that type of person and maybe she could sense that. Maybe everyone could sense that, and that’s why some people treat him the way they do. 

Accepting the fact that he isn’t getting a book he heads back to class. He ignores the people turning to look at him entering the classroom and goes straight for his desk. He sits down as he debates on who to ask to share with him. He isn’t friends with too many people and especially not anyone in this class but his work comes first. But before he can actually choose someone the boy next to him moves his desk over offering his book. Woojin, he thinks his name is. 

They were assigned a worksheet, but the benefit of sharing with Woojin was that they helped each other with answers. Taehyung didn’t need much help but he was more than happy to help Woojin whenever he needed it. 

That class period was primarily dedicated to Zeus, no surprise. They were assigned the first chapter to read and were to answer the questions as followed. Everyone should know about Zeus at this point but it only makes sense that he’s the first one to learn about. While Taehyung knew that Zeus was the king of gods, only today did he actually learn about his backstory. Learning about how Zeus cheated on his wife, who was also his sister, multiple times didn’t seem like an important detail to know, but that actually lead to the creation of many important gods. He knows that he’ll be able to learn about all of the important gods, but he hopes that he’ll also also learn about the lesser-known ones and all their backstories one day. 

 

***

 

It turns out that the librarian was honest when she said there were no more books left. But he can’t be at fault for thinking that she was lying to him. Anyone would think that considering her personality. Regardless, he didn’t let that deter his interest in the class. 

The next few days he had to keep sharing a book with Woojin. He still had to wait for a book to come in for him. Taehyung felt he was imposing although Woojin had been more than happy to share with him. He’s pretty sure that if were open to making new close friends he’d pick Woojin as his first option. But for now, he’ll leave it at greeting each other in the halls and being acquaintances. 

As much as Taehyung appreciated Woojin’s generosity, the more days he went without a book the more impatient he became. It wasn’t only for his recreational use, but several times did the teacher assign work that couldn’t be finished in one class period. He had to ask Woojin if he could borrow his book during the school day and he chose to work on the unfinished work during class periods. That was preferably easy to do so. But that doesn’t mean that he, nor his teachers, were content with it. 

But that Friday, his teacher had finally passed out books to the students lacking them. They had taken a while to get here but Taehyung couldn’t be happier. He immediately wrote his name on the cover, even though he could possibly get in trouble over it. Now he won’t have to rely on someone else for the sake of his grade and he felt beyond relieved. Even if he wouldn’t be interacting with Woojin as much, he’d still make attempts to keep the friendship alive. He wouldn’t let his new friend think that they were only friends because of a book though he didn’t want to make it seem forced and ingenuine. 

Woojin and Taehyung only have one hour together, and that’s not nearly enough time to get to know someone. Not to mention, Woojin’s parents made it a requirement for him to study as soon as he got home for hours on end. Most of his day dealt with school and studying, then more school and studying, and he had to fit other plans in between that. So it would be hard to ever actually befriend him. But Taehyung felt that Woojin would end up being a huge part in his life, regardless. 

 

***

 

When Taehyung arrived home that afternoon his stomach felt like it was in knots. Excitement consumed him and made him too jumpy to actually go into the book. It was that kind of excitement you feel when you’ve finally gotten the thing you’ve always wanted, yet you put off actually using it. 

Several times he decided that he’d open the book but his body didn’t comply. He told himself “Okay, okay. I’m gonna do it” but each time he didn’t. He longed to actually jump in but he chose to leave the book in his bag and go over to Lisa’s house instead. 

One reason why he continues to put off actually going into the book is that he never does it during the day. During the day, he runs the risk of his parents catching him. Considering the fact that they don’t know, he doesn’t want to know their reaction to the knowledge at all. And they probably wouldn’t believe it anyway if he did tell them. So, to avoid the possibility of all of that, he always waited until the night time. 

When he got back home he still didn’t do it. Instead, he got into his bed, but he couldn’t sleep. The most he’s done is scroll aimlessly on his phone, but now he’s staring up at his ceiling. He doesn’t know how long he’s been lying there before he begins to think about all the gods he could possibly meet. All the ones he could become friends with or even enemies. He’d like to think that he and Zeus could be friends and it could be like in the movies where a powerful character had an annoying, but funny, character by their side. And then Taehyung could give Zeus tips on how to run Olympia correctly and Zeus would protect him from everyone else if needed. That’d be the most interesting thing to happen to him so far if he could pull it off. Quietly, he laughs at the thought. 

And at that moment he thinks he hears the book calling to him. He ignores it but with each growing second the calls get louder. But no matter, he ignores it. It doesn’t seem normal to him for one person to be this enthralled in a book they haven’t even read a single page from. Or this obsessed with any subject in general. But he doesn’t understand exactly why he’s putting it off or when he’ll actually do it. Hadn’t he been waiting for this for a while? So why now that he has the chance, he continues to put it off? 

Instead of getting up he simply rolls over and plans to pretend to sleep until he actually falls asleep. An hour later he found himself getting out of bed and searching for his book bag. 

 

***

 

 

He was sure today was not his day. He was incredibly late waking up and it was almost lunch time when he got to school. He slept through all of his alarms and only woke up when his mother came into his room after hearing all of them. He couldn’t focus at all and barely got his work done. He slept through a few of his classes, and he knew he’d regret it, but he didn’t care at the time. He wasn’t able to sleep at all last night until about an hour before his alarm went off. His very first trip to Greece last night had been inconvenient, and exhausting, but he didn’t regret it. He hated how his very first time going had been unsuccessful. He only regretted coming back and still not being able to sleep. Although to be fair, he couldn’t sleep even before that. 

And to make matters worse, neither of his parents were able to pick him up from school so now he has to walk home. His house isn’t the closest to his school, nor the farthest. But that’s neither here nor there. This same thing happened once in sophomore year, and he hated every second of it. Now he’s gonna hate it even more since it’s still winter. No snow, but still the freezing weather and slight wind. 

He tucks his hands into his pockets as the school doors closes behind him. He hadn’t brought his gloves today as he was under the impression that he wouldn’t need them. Of course the one day he doesn’t bring them, he ends up coming up short. He ignores the conversations around him and immediately heads home. But just before he actually makes it completely off school grounds, he hears someone calling his name. He turns, unsure of who called him. But his eyes land on Woojin, waving at him. And next to him stands Hyunjin. 

Taehyung smiles as visible as he can behind his scarf, and lifts his arm to wave back at Woojin. He can feel Hyunjin’s eyes on him, but Taehyung doesn’t spare a wave in his direction. Directly after, Woojin says goodbye to Hyunjin and begins to walk over towards Taehyung. 

“Hey, Woojin,” Taehyung starts, unsure what to say considering they already greeted each other not even five minutes ago. 

“Hey, Taehyung,” Woojin says. Taehyung had told him that he could call him ‘Tae’ twice, but he decides to let it be from now on. “You’re walking home?”

Taehyung turns back around, gesturing for Woojin to walk with him. “Unfortunately.” At least he had someone to walk with him. 

“Since when? You never walk this way.”

“Since today. My parents weren’t able to pick me up.” Taehyung says. It takes a few seconds for the rest of what Woojin said to register. Before Woojin could respond to that, he says, “I didn’t know you knew Hyunjin.”

They fall into step as Woojin nods. “Yeah. He’s one of my best friends.” 

Taehyung thinks for a second, allowing for that information to sink in. It seems like Hyunjin is everyone’s friend except his. “What’s he like?”

Woojin shrugs, looking at the ground. “He’s nice sometimes. Caring and… funny. Doesn’t speak that often. I dunno, hard to describe.” 

That is understandable to Taehyung, since it’s always hard to describe your personality or someone else’s on the spot. But the “sometimes” lingers in his mind. 

After that, they stopped speaking about Hyunjin completely and talked about everything else under the sun. While they were talking Woojin had mentioned how his house came up first, but he offered to walk Taehyung the rest of the way home to make sure he got there safely. Taehyung was taller than Woojin, but he still accepted the offer because he appreciated the thought. 

 

 

***

 

Taehyung lets out a frustrated sigh and locks his bedroom door behind him. He aimlessly throws his book bag somewhere and lies down on his bed. He had enjoyed being home alone but once his parents got home, they had been curious about when the new semester started and how he did the last semester. They ended up finding out about his grades and they were disappointed, to say the least. He hadn’t planned on ever showing them but he couldn’t just lie to them or hide them. Even if he had wanted to, it felt disrespectful to attempt to. They hadn’t asked to see his grades since he started high school, and he doesn’t understand why they would start now. 

Average grades weren’t good enough for them, and Taehyung knew that. Both of his parents wanted him to do much better than either of them and they always said the best colleges don’t accept average people with average grades. Of course he had been trying to get the best grades, but to them it looked like he just played around at school. 

Back in Korea, the education system is different from that in America. Once students left school for the day, usually four in the afternoon, they would continue to study until around 10 or 11 at night. Sometimes it was by choice and for others, a requirement. That’s because of the want to get into the top schools, and the best way to do that was to study most of the time. Taehyung had moved to America before he started high school and his parents didn’t have those same expectations for him. He was grateful for that. 

But after they saw his grades tonight, they made a mountain out of a molehill. At least in Taehyung’s mind they did. He knows that his grades aren’t the best, but he knows that he’s going to do better this semester, so his previous grades don’t matter. Even after explaining this they yelled at him and despite how mad he became, he chose not to retaliate. Half out of respect, and the other half because he knew that that wouldn’t get him anywhere. After they were finished talking to him, he decided to come to his dark room to be sullen alone. 

And once again, he’s back in his room staring up at his ceiling. Only this time without his cellphone. His parents don’t have it, but it was sitting in his bag far too out of reach. Not that he really needed it anyway, with how boring social media has been lately. But weirdly enough, he hears the familiar sound of his ringtone coming from his bag and he groans. He has half a mind to let it just ring, but then he thinks that it could be important so he gets up anyway. 

He gets up to turn on the light and by the time he finds the bag in the room the phone has stopped ringing. Unzipping it and reaching inside he finds his phone. But then he remembers his book. He hadn’t let the thought of it or the class at all today, or for a while, thankfully. But now that he’s still upset he remembers how stress-relieving it is to realm hop. Without a second thought, he clutches the book and takes it out.

He sucks in a breath, opening the book and placing it flat on the floor of his room as he stands back a small distance. He lifts his foot and hovers it over the book for a short second, getting the feel of how far he’ll have to step. Whenever he does this he has to close his eyes. That’s the only way it’ll work. Having his eyes open stops him from going into another universe when he doesn’t want to. He’s grateful for that because he’d rather not be sucked into a book that he simply wanted to read or a picture he simply wanted to touch. 

Closing his eyes, he steps forward, and it all feels like a blur. Not a visual blur, but more like the feeling of knowing you’re moving. He doesn’t know what it looks like at all, but he isn’t interested in finding out either. It usually feels like a giant burst of wind for a few seconds, and then he feels out of breath. Mostly because oxygen doesn’t exist within the wormhole he travels through. 

Once he finally arrives in the world his stomach knots once again. This was all finally real. Well, as real as it could get for the second time. The first time he came here, he was completely under-dressed for the weather. He had expected for it to be warm and sunny, because of what it looked like in the pictures, but he was wrong. As soon as he got here, he could feel the cold blowing directly through him. He immediately turned back around and went back home. That was upsetting for him, considering he couldn’t go back after changing clothes. 

The restriction of only being able to go into one work every 24 hours is another rule that comes with this ability. Every 24 hours, that's a fresh start. Once you enter a work and then you leave for whatever reason you cannot go back until the 24 hours is up. It makes sense to Taehyung, though, even though he hates it. It doesn’t allow for the ability to be abused. Not like he would take advantage of that anyway. Probably.

It’s not a beautiful as he thought it would be, but that’s most likely because it’s January. The trees were bare, the grass dead and lackluster, and the chill in the air was still able to nip Taehyung through his thick hoodie. It was no different from back home, yet it felt better here than it ever did in Ohio. It also felt as though snow could fall at any second, waiting for a cue. And he didn’t know how true that was because he didn’t know if there was a such thing as a snow God. God of snow? He doesn’t know but he makes a mental note to look it up when he gets home. 

He doesn’t know how long he stood there just admiring the scenery, considering there isn’t much to look at. But the knowledge of being in a new place has him filled with awe. Despite the barren landscape, it’s all beautiful to him. He’s been waiting to come here for the longest time and the effects of winter won’t dull his excitement. 

It seems as if his portal opened in a cave far away from civilization. There are no visible people, homes, nothing. The best way to avoid raising concern maybe, but it feels so inconveniencing to Taehyung. It feels like he’s in the middle of nowhere. 

He isn’t sure where to go, though, from the entrance of the cave, there is a path stretching in front of him. It was a path that was naturally made over time from humans walking in the same direction. Despite the wind getting uncomfortable, Taehyung decides to follow it. He has no destination in mind, but that doesn’t matter. 

He isn’t sure how long he’s been walking, but he’s a great distance from where he started. At least he has the path to help him get back. So far all he can see are trees, no people. But ahead he can see a short bridge. When he goes up to it, he admires it for a second. It’s a bridge made of secure-looking logs. It’s not a regular bridge you’d just walk across, as it’s elevated. There are stairs also made of logs attached to it, so Taehyung decides to walk across it. 

Suddenly, Taehyung hears something that sounds like a voice, but he doesn’t understand the language being spoken. He isn’t even sure if the voice is being directed towards him so he ignores it and keeps walking. Despite ignoring whatever it is, it scares him knowing that someone might be here with him yet he doesn’t know who it is. A few seconds later, he hears the disembodied voice again. He turns around to search for the source. Immediately, he sees the person responsible. Or well, the creature, he’d say. He looks human, but the huge, white wings behind him say different. Atop his head rests pink hair parted on the side. For his body, it’s covered with somewhat flowy fabric. It was held in place on one shoulder allowing the other half of his chest to be exposed, and a belt around the waist. To tie the outfit off, he’s wearing brown, sandals strapped at the ankle. Not suitable for the weather, at least to Taehyung. And lastly, he holds a bow in his right hand. There’s a strap around his torso and Taehyung can only assume that it’s holding the accompanying arrows behind him. 

The other person he assumes was talking to him is standing a safe distance behind him. They also have their bow drawn, pointing directly at Taehyung.

Instinctively, Taehyung raises his hands to let the other know that he wasn’t going to harm them. That must’ve worked a bit, considering the other person lowered their bow. Not much, but Taehyung noticed it. 

Again, he hears the same language from before. This time, he knows who it’s from. He still doesn’t understand it, though. “I don’t… I don’t--” He’s interrupted by the other before he can state that he doesn’t understand. 

They sigh, before saying, “I said: you are not from here,” they clarify. 

Hesitantly, Taehyung responds, “I… No. I’m not.” He isn’t sure what to say, considering he doesn’t know how the person will react. Nor does he know if they’re benign or malevolent. He isn’t from here, obviously, so he’d rather be safe than sorry. Especially with his life possibly on the line. 

“It was not a question,” the person says brusquely. Without notice they walk over to Taehyung, and stop about a few feet away. They scan Taehyung from head to toe, fully taking in his details. “Do you not know of Greek, or are you simply playing foolish for the sake of it?”

Closer now, Taehyung can see the details of the other man’s face. He looks young, cherubic even, though it’s obvious that he’s an adult. Taehyung can admit that he’s beautiful and alluring without even being attracted to him. His face is soft and trusting, but anyone would easily be intimidated by him. Especially when they’re being threatened by him. 

Before Taehyung can respond, the other person speaks, “Where are you from, if not here?”

“Earth,” Taehyung replies, not thinking. After he says it, he immediately feels dumb. He’s pretty sure he’s in Greece-- a country on Earth. But his answer is understandable, considering he’s from an alternate universe. He’d like to think any rational person in his shoes would give that same answer.

“You are funny,” the man says, offering a small smile. “Where are you from?” He reiterates. 

This time, Taehyung actually comes up with a reasonable answer. “Korea, but I live in America now.” He had thought over his answer, not sure if he should say Korea or America. Either answer would make sense, but he didn’t want to make it seem like he still lived in Korea. But if he had only said America, then it felt like he would've been denying where he was actually from.

“You do not belong here.” While the tone of his voice sounds neutral, Taehyung still can feel how unwelcoming it is. 

Taehyung hesitates before answering, “I know. I just wanted to travel, I guess.” Mentally, he slaps himself for responding awkwardly. 

“A silly response. Though an answer nonetheless,” he says, though his second sentence seemed to be said more to himself than addressed to Taehyung. “Your attire,” he gestures to Taehyung’s clothes, “this is what humans wear in America?”

“Well, I--” Taehyung looks down at his outfit, apparently forgetting what he put on that morning. He has on a somewhat oversized blue hoodie with neon green letters, a white shirt long enough to peek from the bottom of the hoodie, and regular dark jeans. “It’s what I wear.”

“Hmm,” the other audibly says. “It is very hard on the eyes.” A second later, this time, he laughs. A hearty one. He lowers his bow completely now, though still drawn. 

Taehyung isn’t sure how to feel about this stranger making fun of his outfit, so he mimics their laughing. It’s an awkward, fake, small laugh, but the other person doesn’t notice. If they do, they don’t say anything. Honestly, Taehyung didn’t see anything wrong with his clothes when he put them on this morning so he doesn’t understand the problem now. There are things he thought about the other person’s choice of clothing, but he kept them to himself. 

“What is your name?” They ask. 

Maybe he shouldn’t blindly share information with someone he doesn’t know, but his better judgment is ignored for now. “Taehyung. But you can call me ‘Tae’.” Taehyung sees the other person nod, and he’s assuming that they’re remembering his name. “What’s yours?”

“You do not know who I am?” He smirks, on the brink of a smile. He tilts his head to the side a little, barely noticeable. Before Taehyung can answer, he says, “I am Eros. But I would prefer to be called ‘Jimin’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love this chapter, and hope y'all do too.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimin.

Eros. Taehyung hadn’t learned anything about Eros. He learned about several gods and goddesses, but Eros hadn’t come up at all. “Oh… I-- I really thought you were Cupid.” 

Jimin gapes slightly but then gave a stern look to Taehyung. “I look like Cupid?”

Unsure if he upset Jimin or not, Taehyung only slightly nods. 

“I have heard that many a time. Too many times to count simply on ten fingers. Not original, might I add.” Anyone that hadn’t been a Greek native always confused him with the Roman god Cupid. They do share many similarities, considering many people associate them with love, but they were born in two different places. Nevertheless, Cupid resembles a mere child while Eros embodies a young adult. 

Taehyung immediately apologizes again to Jimin. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” he trails off and uses his hand to say the rest of his unfinished sentence. 

“A minor mistake easily forgiven.”

“Where is Cupid from, then?” He isn’t too worried about being forgiven for mistaking Jimin for Cupid. He does, however, feel bad for being too quick to ask that. 

“Rome.” The answer short and sweet, void of further explanation. 

“Roman mythology?”

“Mythology? Nothing here is a myth, I assure you.” 

Oh. He hadn’t thought about the fact that the people here were ignorant to the fact of them not actually existing. It’s a fact that he knew, and everyone back in reality knew, but of course Jimin did not. “Forget I said anything,” Taehyung waves it off. It isn’t his place to break the news to Jimin that he is only a figment. 

Jimin allows for Taehyung to drop the subject, not interested in it. “He is Roman. We share many similarities but neither of us are obviously the same being. Mortals of all backgrounds have improperly labeled me Cupid, and him Eros, but I do not understand how one confuses two different individuals with each other. Seems foolish to me, might I add.” 

Nodding, Taehyung looks around at the scenery around him once again. He looks back at Jimin and says, “What makes you different?”

“Excuse me?” Jimin asks, confused. 

“Like…You said you’re different. What’s the difference?” Taehyung asks. He figures that they can’t be too different since people routinely confuse them.

Jimin blinks, then scoffs. “What does it matter to you?” Even though his reflecting question seems to be rude, he isn’t averse to talking about himself. He could go on for eons talking about himself. 

Without missing a beat, Taehyung responds, “You seem interesting. I don’t know. I’m just trying to learn about you.”

It takes a second for the words to sink in, and that’s the icing on the cake for Jimin. He gives a small smile, his expression changing from that of derision. 

Taehyung hadn’t meant for the statement to have that perception, but he goes with it anyway. Everyone, especially gods, love to be flattered anyway. It would at least keep him from being on Jimin’s bad side, which he knew would have been inevitable judging from the negative slope the conversation was heading. 

“Cupid is the embodiment of… affection, desire, and erotica. I, on the other hand, am the god of love, physical desire, and attraction. They are all very different.” Jimin waves his hand to explain what he hasn’t said, similar to Taehyung’s action prior. 

All of those seemed like the exact same thing just said in different ways to Taehyung, but he chooses not to argue it. “Oh, I see. Makes sense.” 

Jimin nods. “Yes, it is nice to finally have someone understand the difference. Of course Cupid and I know the difference but explaining it to others is a hassle in itself.” He gestures to nowhere now, “But enough about me. I think I should be going.” When he had first felt Taehyung’s presence, he was unsure of what he was. Now that he knows that he is a harmless human, there’s no need to continue taking up each other’s time. So without much thought, he adjusts his belt and he walks forward over the bridge past Taehyung. 

Taehyung waits a few seconds, letting Jimin leave. For a brief period, he weighs his options. He could either stay here and continue walking aimlessly, or follow the person who knows his way around. Hesitantly, he ends up going in the same direction as the other. He feels like the annoying stereotype of a character following another character around but that’s not the case. He simply wants to talk to Jimin and it just so happens that he has to follow and catch up to him. 

Jimin doesn’t get to make it too far before he can hear Taehyung trailing behind him. He wants to ask why he’s following him, but he doesn’t get the chance. 

“Wait, I--” Taehyung begins, but he doesn’t get to finish. He trips over something, and falls into Jimin and harshly tugs at a handful of the feathers on his wings.

As expected, Jimin gasps, turns around, and immediately shoves Taehyung back with one hand forcefully enough to make him stumble backwards. Instinctively, his wings somewhat splay almost showing his full wingspan. He looks somewhat similar to an angry bird. “Have you lost your mind?” He raises his voice enough for the message to get across, but chooses to not yell at Taehyung. Someone touching his wings was enough of an action to evoke anger in him but for some reason he can’t feel any negative feelings towards Taehyung. 

Feverishly, Taehyung apologises. “I’m sorry-- I tripped. I wasn’t trying to do that.” He truly wasn’t trying to hurt Jimin-- if he actually did hurt him. He ended up tripping over something and tried to stop his fall by reaching out. It’s not like he purposefully wanted to do that. 

The sun will be disappearing soon and he’d rather not be in an unknown place at night. It’s either turn around and go back home, risk being alone in the dark, or become friends with Jimin. The latter seems like the best option in his mind. “I was just trying to get your attention.”

For a moment, Jimin only stares at Taehyung and takes in his appearance. Taehyung, feeling uncomfortable with the prolonged stare, shifts his eyes in another direction. Hadn’t he done that, he would’ve seen the look of realization on Jimin’s face and the unexplainable emotion after.   
Jimin does not accept taehyung’s second apology with words this time. He only turns away from him, and continues on his way and it doesn’t surprise him to hear footsteps behind him once again. This time, he only hopes that Taehyung won’t touch any of his other appendages. 

Taehyung jogs to catch up to Jimin so he can walk beside him and then they simply walk in silence. He feels his hand fiddling with something, and he looks down. Between his fingers he sees one of Jimin’s feathers and he can feel his face heat up. He hadn’t known he plucked it, but maybe Jimin did. That would explain his reaction. Though If he had seen it in Taehyung’s possession, he didn’t comment on it. He ends up stuffing it in his hoodie pocket in an effort to hide it. Who knows how the god will react if he even catches a glimpse of it? 

After too long, Taehyung interrupts the silence with a question, “What is it usually like here?” So far, his consensus is that it’s underwhelmingly boring as of now. Perhaps in the warmer months the excitement will pick up, but as of now, the chilling wind and dead leaves are nothing short of mundane. It isn’t what he expected, but that’s his fault for not remembering the fact that the seasons all correlate regardless of which universe. 

Jimin sucks in a deep breath and briefly examines the area around them. He notices clouds beginning to gather, and he knows that that means. He chooses to ignore them. “Lively. Warm, joyous… everything under the sun you could imagine. But during these few months… all life seems to halt. It is only prosaic this time of year.” Hades is the only one to blame for the somber feeling during this time. Had he not taken Persephone from above ground, a depression would not spread throughout Greece at the hand of Demeter each year. “The Americas is not spared, I assume?” 

“No,” Taehyung almost misses a low hanging branch, but he ducks under it in time, “It’s nothing to do at all there. Literally just school and home, and school and home, and school and home.” 

Chuckling a small bit, Jimin replies, “That sounds better than what happens here. Usually, many lives are lost due to the lack of vegetation. I am unsure of why snow has not fallen yet but once it happens, I fear for those unprepared. Many have adjusted. But others are not as lucky as they.” 

That is worse than anything Taehyung, or anyone for that matter, back home would experience. The worst thing that happened was when he’d get frostbite in his toes, but that’s significantly less horrible than people dying of hunger. He decides to keep that to himself, though he was really close to saying it. 

“It is very unfortunate for me, however.”

This catches Taehyung’s attention, and he looks over at the man next to him. “What do you mean?”

“Ever since I was born, it has been my job to light the flame of love in the hearts of the people, the other gods being no exception. I did not have a choice, but I would not have picked any other path to walk down, had I been given one. During the cold months, humans are bundled inside of their homes. That makes it increasingly hard for me. But my mother she… understands, so I am not reprimanded for it. Sometimes.” 

“Your mother?” 

“Aphrodite.”

Interesting. Taehyung hadn’t known that Aphrodite had children, or maybe they only brushed past it and he forgot. Either way, this feels like new information to him. It would make a lot of sense as well, considering they’re both the symbols for love, though Eros lesser-known apparently. “Oh, I know her.” It dawns on him that Jimin also said “sometimes” as Woojin once did. This is the second time someone has said this, and still he lingers on it. “Sometimes?”

Jimin sucks in a breath. He realizes that he’s headed in a direction he should not be, so he changes the subject. “You seem to know of her. Yet not me?”

“Well, I… I do now,” Taehyung tries. He notices how Jimin avoids the question, but he chooses not to pry. He knows better than to try for information about someone’s family life.

Jimin sighs. “That is all that matters, I suppose.” He’s used to that by now. Several people have either told him that they didn’t know of his existence, or they confuse him for Cupid. It no longer hurts him, but it’s still annoying whenever it happens. But the majority of Greeks know better, now. 

^^^^^^(!!!)

Taehyung looks over at Jimin, and double takes. He looks at his hair, and finally notices how Jimin’s head isn’t near his own height. “You’re short,” he says bluntly, not thinking. 

“Was I supposed to be ignorant to this information?” People commenting about his height is nothing new. He knows that he’s about the height of the average human male, but that doesn’t stop people from reminding him of where he comes up short. “You are also almost no taller than I. Does that also make you short?”

Feeling somewhat bad for mentioning height at all, he makes it worse by saying, “I just thought you’d be… taller.”

“I got that.”

“No, I meant like, bigger. I wanted you to be like 10x bigger than me. Well… that’s what I expected, at least, I mean.” Taehyung thought the gods would be giant compared to him. He’d imagined being surrounded by people several times bigger than he. The gods all being around his height isn’t nearly as exciting as his expectations were. Only now did he notice Jimin’s height, further proving that the only thing that separates him from Jimin seemed to be the wings. Even then, Taehyung forgot that the wings were there. It felt as though he was just around another human from back home, sans the dialect. Though Jimin is much better to be around than they.

“Yes… and I am sure that the souls in the Underworld wish that they were with us but we do not always get what the heart desires, it seems.” 

Taehyung doesn’t know how to respond to that. “What about Zeus? How tall is he?”

Jimin has to think for a moment, recollecting what he knows about Zeus. “Six feet, he’d like to believe. Or so, that is what he repeats to anyone who dare ask.” 

“That’s it? Where are all the giant people. I know they exist.”

“Why do you seem to have an obsession with gargantuan creatures? Hopefully they are a safe distance from you… lest you do not treasure your life.” That’s not an empty statement. All giant creatures are living alone on deserted islands or locked far away. As you would expect, they are dangerous and would kill a human like Taehyung with no hesitation and attempt the same for a god. That’s exactly why they’re exiled, and Jimin can’t understand why anyone would even want to spare a glance at them for even a second. 

Suddenly, it comes to him. Taehyung snaps his fingers as he remembers. “The titans! That’s who I’m thinking of. What about them?” Along with Zeus, he had learned about the titans. Though, he still doesn’t know much about them.

“Oh. Long gone. Imprisoned in the deepest part of the underworld long before my time… and especially before your family lineage ever thought of existing. For your sake… I hope you never get the displeasure of shaking hands with them.”

“What did they do that was that bad?”

“Inquire, inquire, inquire, inquire. Can your mouth do anything else? What makes you think I happen to have all the answers to your endless questions?” 

“Well…” Taehyung raises one of his eyebrows, waiting for an answer. He already knows the answer but he wants to hear Jimin confirm his beliefs. 

Jimin sighs once again. It isn’t his job to be the welcome committee for humans that weren’t from Greece. He despises how he got himself in this position in the first place, and he’d rather get out of it immediately. “A possibility, unfortunately.”

 

***

 

 

Taehyung soon feels something wet hit his face and he is confused at first. But when he starts to feel it happening over and over again, he understands. He pulls his hood over his head, looks up at the sky, and hopes that there won’t be a heavy downpour. He isn’t even slightly dressed for rain. It’s just going to soak through his clothes and make it even colder. Maybe if he had checked the weather beforehand… 

Jimin groans next to him, obviously displeased with the weather just as much as Taehyung, perhaps even more. The weather here can fluctuate, especially since controlled by gods. Many of them will use the atmosphere as a way to let out their feelings. It happens more often than not, as there is always something going on behind the scenes here. But Jimin doesn’t judge them. He knows that if he were to be in control of the weather, he too wouldn’t use the power wisely. 

As time went on, the rain gradually got heavier but Jimin already knew this would happen. Zeus has a habit of letting his anger consume him, so light showers don’t exist as long as he’s in a rut. But this isn’t the worst of it all. Zeus is a kind and merciful god usually, and it’s only when he’s been angered will he act out. Those anger fits last longer than many would like, unfortunately. The good thing, though, is that this doesn’t happen as often one might think. 

A short distance away, Taehyung notices a seemingly run-down building. It looks just like any Greek building you could imagine with mile-high white pillars, borders connecting to them, and half the roof missing. Despite this, he decides that the roof will offer more protection than being out in the open.

Jimin seems to have the same idea and they both end up lightly running to take shelter under the partial roof. Taehyung almost slips once again but he manages to catch his fall before reaching for Jimin. 

Jimin makes it under the pillars first with Taehyung close behind him. As soon as Taehyung is under he sits on the floor of the building and catches his breath. That short distance shouldn't have made him tired, but it did. Suddenly, he feels a considerable amount of water hit him all at once. It’s reminiscent of when he finishes giving his dog a bath and then the dog shakes his fur dry. He turns around towards Jimin and he sees that the other man hadn’t realized he wet him until now. 

“Many pardons,” Jimin apologizes, “My wings were too damp for my liking.”

Taehyung shakes his head. “It’s whatever.” He wasn’t bothered by it, just shocked because he hadn’t been expecting it. 

“Also, this does not happen very often. I apologize on behalf of Zeus. He… this only happens when he is bothered by something, or someone has unwillingly upset him.” He can only wonder what, or who, has set off Zeus as he sees a quick flash of lightning above them. 

“It’s okay. I like the rain, don’t worry.” Taehyung removes the hood from his head as it had become uncomfortable once drenched. 

After a while, Jimin sits down next to Taehyung. He keeps a respectable distance, however. The main reason he’s seated directly next to him is because of the roof lacking over 80% of itself, but for now he can pretend that it’s because Taehyung is his friend. 

Jimin sets his bow down between the both of them, and then runs his free hand through his wet hair that fell in his face. He doesn’t know what to say to the other to keep the conversation alive but luckily, he doesn’t have to. He sees Taehyung’s hand placed over his bow, and he looks up at him. 

“Can I?” Taehyung asks, his eyebrows raised. 

Jimin doesn’t verbally answer. He waves his hand, giving Taehyung permission. He already knows the outcome before anything even begins.  
The bow doesn’t make it too far off the ground before Taehyung his dropping it back down. “Oh my god. It’s heavy.” 

“Yes… you get used to the weight eventually. But you are mortal… you are not meant to wield such a weapon.” There have been many people who were, unjustly, interested in his bow only to be disappointed with the weight of it. He’s unsure why it was created that way, but he’s eternally grateful. 

Maybe Taehyung can’t use it, but he can still admire it. It looks as though it’s solid gold with a plain handle separating it into two parts. Each part resembles an open wing, both reminiscent of the pair Jimin owns, with a tight string attached to both ends. There are also small, unrecognizable designs etched into it. 

Taehyung runs his finger over the bow, feeling the unique indents littering it. “Where’d you get it?”

Jimin steals a look down at his bow, then looks back up at the falling rain. “Athena. She’s the strategic goddess of warfare, craftsmanship, wisdom, among other things,” Jimin explains, knowing that Taehyung most likely doesn’t know who that is or what she’s known for. “It was hand-crafted for me moments after I was born, at the request of my mother. Had Athena made it by her own hand, or not, for I do not know, but it is distinctly made for me and at my disposal only.”

“Like Thor.”

“Like whom?”

“He’s the god of lightning and thunder and all that. He’s literally one of the best superheroes, to be honest.” Taehyung stops touching the bow as of now, and looks upwards towards the cloudy sky. He pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms loosely around them. He can feel the cold beginning to seep through his clothes and it makes him wish he was back home in his warm room in dry clothes. He tries to suppress a shiver. 

A look crosses Jimin’s face, though Taehyung doesn’t see it. “I have heard of him, through the grapevine of course. I have never seen him, yet I know that he could never be more powerful than Zeus.”

Taehyung internally rolls his eyes at the misplaced loyalty. Clearly, they’re talking about two different Thors. But to be fair, neither of them are real. At least they both have that in common. “Well anyway, he has this hammer. Not a regular hammer hammer but a weapon hammer. He’s the only one who can lift it. That’s what you and your bow remind me of.”

Jimin hums, unsure how to respond to that. Then he notices Taehyung shivering once again, so he speaks up, “Perhaps you should go back from whence you came, Tae.”

Taehyung shakes his head. Even though he agrees, he doesn’t want this visit to be anywhere near the same as the last one. He’s determined to have a memorable experience, and leaving early would ruin that. 

“You are freezing. Prolonging your stay in the rain will not benefit you.” 

Again, Taehyung shakes his head. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” And he’s sure he will be. The worst that will come out of this is a cold and slight frostbite, and he can handle that. He looks at Jimin and takes in his revealing outfit once more. “What about you? Aren’t you cold?” Jimin hasn’t shown any sign of being cold nor complained once, despite his outfit seemingly more appropriate in the warmer months. 

“Yes and no. I can feel the cold just as much as you, but it does not affect me as it does you. It would take more than precipitation and cold weather to make me cold.”

That’s not the answer he expected but he isn’t surprised. He is a god, after all. That would be nice, to not be able to be cold. Taehyung really wishes he were able to do that right about now. But focusing on the cold won’t do anything for him. He’d rather think about anything but that. “So in the summer, you don’t get hot either?”

Jimin hums. “Not in our temperatures. Usually it is 75 degrees averaged. Though I do not get as hot as you may, that does not mean that I am comfortable. The heat and cold are still inconveniencing and I would much rather be in my home as of now.”

“You have a house?”

“Well… where else would I dwell? The streets of Greece? Or in the woods like an animal?” 

“No, well… I…” he hadn’t thought too much about how gods live, it seems. He knows they lived on Mount Olympus but didn’t really think about actual homes there. “Not a house like everyone else, at least.”

“No, it is not like a human’s house.” Jimin rolls his eyes, though at the thought of living as a human, not at Taehyung. “Mount Olympus is where I reside and the homes there are much different.” 

“What’s it like there? In Olympus?” That’s been a question sitting on his mind for some time now, long before he came here. He can only imagine what it looks like. 

Jimin thinks for a moment. “Beautiful. Probably the most stunning place I have ever had the pleasure to lay my eyes on. It’s shielded from humans by clouds, protected by the Horae. There… there are golden gates at the entrance, with Heracles guarding it.” Mount Olympus is one of the most beautiful places he’s ever seen. He’s grateful that he gets to enjoy the endless luxuries there that the residents below will never experience. “It… it is hard to explain. Perhaps one day you shall see it for yourself.” He truly doesn’t know how to explain it but one thing he does know is that Taehyung will never get to see it. A human making it to the top of Mount Olympus is unheard of, and the few have tried have never successfully lived to tell the tale. There is a reason humans do not live there. 

Taehyung would like to think that Mount Olympus is similar to Heaven. Granted, he doesn’t know what heaven is like but he’s probably not too far off. A place only inhabited by gods is most likely the closest thing to heaven, especially since it’s situated on the tallest of mountains and hiding behind the thickest of clouds. He knows for a fact that he will get to see what lies at the top one day, he’ll make sure of it. 

“What does your house look like?”

“Covered in flora because of my love for nature. Flowers, I have an abundance of them. Roses in varying shades, to be exact.” There are others, but he chooses to only name the flower that takes up the most space and are his favorite.

That would make sense. You’d expect for the god of love to be associated with flowers to some extent. But Taehyung hates roses. They’re cliche and overrated for them to be as unattractive as they are. Not to mention how prickly they are, Taehyung cannot count how many times he’s been a victim of the thorns poking him. But he won’t mention any of that to Jimin. 

 

After some time of just talking about pointless things while waiting for the rain to clear, Taehyung looks around and finally takes in the fact that it’s getting late. It isn’t completely dark out but he can clearly tell that the sun is about to disappear behind the horizon in about one or two hours. He fishes his phone out of his front jean pocket and looks at the time. 8:34 it reads, and that’s late enough for him. He had told himself that he wouldn’t stay extremely late and he’d rather be home before it becomes pitch black here. Talking with Jimin caused for time to pass by without notice, and only after something in the distance-- people, he presumes-- caught Jimin’s attention did Taehyung notice his surroundings. 

“What is that?” Jimin asks next to him, having noticed the bright light of the screen. 

“Oh, uh, a phone.” Taehyung shines the light of his phone onto Jimin, looking at Jimin’s facial expressions as he examines Taehyung’s lock screen. 

“I have never heard of such before. What does it do?” Jimin had never seen anything like the device before and his curiosity is eating at him. He wants to explore every inch of it but he stops himself from asking. 

“Well… It can do almost everything, but I don’t have any reception right now. It works better when I’m at home. All I can do right now is take pictures and listen to music.”

“Pictures?”

“Yeah.” Taehyung swipes up on his phone and presses the camera icon. Once he can see himself, he turns it back to Jimin. 

Jimin gasps upon seeing himself in the camera. “Oh, that’s me.” Without thinking, he takes the phone from Taehyung and looks more at the image of himself. He turns his head in different directions, most likely to see if the device is actually showing his realtime movements. 

“You’ve never seen what you look like?”

“I have, but never… like this. I do not know how to explain it, but I have never seen myself look this way before. I always knew that I looked stunning, charming even, but now… this person staring back at me surpasses any surface I have had the pleasure to look at.” He’d seen his own reflection on the surface of calm waters, the makeshift mirrors made of copper and bronze, even in the reflective material of silverware. But never did he think that he could look better than he already thought he did. 

“I could’ve told you that. Of course you look beautiful.” And anyone would agree with that statement. Anyone could see that Jimin is beautiful, attracted to him or not. 

“Well… yes, of course. I appreciate the compliment from you, as well. That fact is well-known throughout Greece, but you have opened my eyes to new mediums to observe my beauty that have previously been unbeknownst to me.” 

Taehyung reaches over a small distance and presses the white button at the bottom of the screen. 

Jimin gapes a small bit, looking at Taehyung quickly before looking back down at the phone. “What did you just do?”

“I took a picture.” He presses the small image at the bottom and the picture he took of Jimin shows bigger on the screen. “See? It doesn’t move though. It’s like a… painting, but different.”

“Oh,” Jimin says, studying the still picture. “I do not fancy this one.”

The picture looks fine to Taehyung, but he takes Jimin back to the camera. “Here, if you press this button it takes a picture.”

With this information, Jimin doesn’t hesitate to pose for a picture. He has posed for several statues of him, and paintings alike, so this should be no different for him. But this time, he doesn’t know what to do. The camera only shows his face, so he opts for a simple picture of him smiling, for lack of a better pose. After he is finished he just looks at the phone in his hands before speaking to Taehyung, “I would like to see it.”

Taehyung presses the small picture in the corner of the screen once more as a bigger picture shows up. 

Jimin smiles at the picture. “Yes… I admire this one more than the other.” 

Several minutes later, they had taken many pictures of both him and Jimin, some of the environment, and others being solo pictures of each other. It got darker before Taehyung had realized it and he only noticed once he couldn’t see himself or Jimin in the camera as well. Once again, time passed him by because of his not paying attention. 

Taehyung feels bad for having to say this, but he does anyway, “I have to get home now. I’m sorry.” He could tell how much fun Jimin was having with the camera, and he mentally promises to allow Jimin to use it the next time he’s here. 

“Oh… it is quite alright. I figured your curfew would arrive soon. It is also better for you to not be outside in this weather for too long.” As much as he’d hate to admit it, he was still worried about Taehyung being out here and now he will finally have peace of mind. 

Taehyung stands up and lets out a breath. He can faintly see, but not as well as he would if there were streetlights. He turns around to face Jimin, the god looking back at him with kind eyes. Looking down at Jimin like this, he looks smaller than he did before. He also looks more welcoming and Taehyung feels bad again for his next statement. “I don’t know the way back.” Jimin had done a lot by just being with him and it feels like he’s asking him to go the extra mile now. 

Though a statement, Jimin can understand the intent behind Taehyung’s words without his saying it. “I see.” He’s going to have to lead Taehyung back into that forest, but that doesn’t come as a surprise to him. He doesn’t expect the other to know his way around just yet. He also noticed Taehyung shivering a few minutes ago. It was so small that you wouldn’t notice it, but he did. Paired with the cold weather and the heavy rain that fell moments ago, Jimin knows that Taehyung will end up getting colder if he lets him walk back. Not to mention how uncomfortable wet clothes are.

He looks at Taehyung once more and sighs. Impulsively, he stands up and puts Taehyung’s arm around his neck. He hooks one of his arms around Taehyung’s back and another under his legs. 

There’s a questioning look on Taehyung’s face, and Jimin immediately explains. “If I allow you to walk back, you will catch cold.” And as pure as his intentions are Jimin hates carrying people, though slightly less than flying in the rain. He cannot afford to fly in the rain because once his wings are too wet, they become useless. But he’s sure his they will be fine, especially since the rain had lightened considerably. 

Taehyung accepts that answer, choosing not to fight against it. He agrees that he’s basically freezing but it’s more because he doesn’t feel like walking back. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel awkward being this up close and personal with someone he just met though.

Jimin steps out into the rain, sparing a look up at the sky. After a second of hesitation, he opens his wings and prays to Zeus that they don’t fall. 

As he flies, he can’t help but feel that this seems like a level of intimacy, or rather closeness, that they don’t have between them as of now. Not to mention the fact that Jimin doesn’t want to hold someone in his arms or how Taehyung could even be afraid of heights but he didn’t bother to ask. 

Somewhere down the line, Jimin can feel the extra effort he’s putting into flying. Instead of persevering he simply decides to land. They’re not that far away from where they need to be anyway. “I apologize. I cannot fly in the rain.” He starts to lower Taehyung from his arms once they’re down on the ground again.

Taehyung shakes his head, not fazed by the sudden landing. “No, it’s okay. I think I can find my way back from here. Thank you.” 

“Are you positive about that? You want to walk back alone in the cover of darkness?” Though he does care about Taehyung making it back safely, he only wants one answer to these questions. He doesn’t feel like doing anything more than he already did. Insensitive maybe, but it’s the truth. 

“I’m not afraid of the dark, Jimin,” Taehyung laughs. He straightens out his hoodie and walks forward while Jimin hangs back. He could easily just up and leave but he feels as though that would be rude. Jimin was nice enough to be with him all this time, even flown him back, and a simple goodbye is the least he could give. He spins back around and says, “It was nice to meet you, Jimin. Thank you.” 

Placing his hands behind his back, Jimin watches as Taehyung begins to walk off. A smile grazes his face, and he replies, “And I you, Taehyu-- Tae. Do not be a stranger.” Those words, they’re the truth. He does want for the other to come back more often, though not under the same circumstances. For both of their sakes, though his own for a different reason.

He watches Taehyung up until he’s no longer a silhouette, and he feels content that he somewhat made it back safely. At that, he immediately opens his wings with the intent to fly off but then he remembers that they’re wet. He slightly flitters his wings again to remove excess water, cursing the fact he has to walk for the rest of the night. Then he curses himself again for being forgetful enough to leave his bow back at that building.

He truly hates when Zeus does this. Not only does this incevience him, but any other winged gods. They aren’t afforded the same luxury of waterproof feathers like birds and it makes it harder for them to get to and from places. Especially if you live on Mount Olympus, like many gods do, then you have to wait until the rain subsides to be able to fly back home. Mentally, Jimin makes a note to bring this up to Zeus tomorrow during the daily meeting at the Pantheon.

 

 

After some time, Taehyung can start to see a soft pink glow contrasting against the night, and he can feel a weight lift off of him. At first he thought he was going the wrong way, but now he feels reassured. While his experience wasn’t as he thought it would be, being with Jimin had made it less boring. He promises to listen to Jimin when he said to not be a stranger, and he’ll be back eventually. Probably not any time soon this winter, but he will. 

 

 

***

 

 

Now back at home, Taehyung feels as if his entire body has been swallowed up by fatigue. He feels like there’s something he should do before he goes to sleep but he can’t be bothered to remember. He pulls off his wet hoodie, the shirt coming with it, and then he steps out of his pants. Instead of picking out pajamas to wear, he simply pulls his covers back and gets under them. 

After a few seconds of drifting closer and closer to sleep, he realizes that his light is still on. Groaning, he gets up and searches in the pockets of his discarded clothes for his phone before he actually turns the light off. He puts one of his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie and then feels something in it. He pulls it out, confused because he doesn’t recognize it based on touch alone. Once the object hits the light, he’s even more confused than before. It’s the feather he accidentally pulled from Jimin. But why it’s able to be here with him is the real question. 

He checks his pants, succeeding in finding his phone. He plugs it in and then finally he gets back into his bed. Part of him wants to think about the feather being here, but the drowsiness begins to seep back in and he’s forgetting about it. Quickly, he flicks the light off. He places the feather on his dresser next to his bed, or in the direction of it, and crawls back into his bed. As soon as his head hits the pillow, he lets the sound of the rain lull him to sleep. 

When he wakes up the following morning, he feels better than he did all week. Usually when he goes to sleep, he doesn’t wake up in any state better than where he began. This time he feels completely different and he’s unsure why, but he won’t question it. 

He rolls over in his bed and his eyes land on the bright, white feather lying on his dresser. Suddenly, he remembers where it’s from and he can feel something in his chest. He can’t name the exact feeling, but he is positive that hope is located somewhere in there. The fact that he brought the feather home is an enigma in itself, as he wasn’t able to do that before in any other universe. What’s so different now that the laws of reality seem to bend for this one instance? There has to be an explanation for it, as in that he just so happened to find a bird feather sometime outside and forgot about its existence in his hoodie. That seems like the only logical solution, because that cannot be a feather from Jimin. It’s impossible. 

To any regular person, this wouldn’t seem like a big deal. It’s a feather. You can easily find those anywhere without searching. But it’s the fact that it’s Jimin’s feather, and Jimin isn’t real. Jimin does not exist, yet a part of him is here back in the real world with Taehyung. It doesn’t make sense. 

He tells himself that the feather is from his own universe, hoping to cement that thought. Questioning reality never proved effective. But he doesn’t believe that explanation fully. Then he remembers another thing. Immediately, he pulls his phone from the charger, unlocks it, and presses on the photos app. His heart beats while he waits for the most recent picture to load, and then it sinks. Just as he thought, Jimin wasn’t in the picture he took last night. None of them. In every picture Taehyung looked delusional posing with something that wasn’t there. Now he knows for a fact his memory is faulty and the feather hadn’t once belonged to Jimin. 

Sighing, he locks his phone once again and drops it in the direction of his bedside dresser but ends up dropping it on the floor, misjudging the distance. He lets it lay there. 

 

***

 

 

Fluttering his wings to soften his landing, Jimin touches the ground a few feet away from the giant, golden gate, setting his eyes on the man residing just outside of them. The man in question being Heracles, one of the most revered heroes. Jimin looks up to Heracles admirably, even though he is years beyond the demigod’s senior. Jimin had been alive to witness the rumors and tales of Heracles spreading throughout Greece, more so his twelve labors. Immediately, Jimin had known that he wanted him as a friend, lover, or even an acquaintance. Luckily, he’s now Jimin’s closest and best friend, and Jimin couldn’t be more grateful of the fact that he doesn’t have to be as lonely as he once was. 

Heracles had known Jimin was coming before he even landed, before he made his presence known. It was a regular thing for Jimin to meet him here, and he expected it at this time each day. 

As he always does, Jimin stares up at gates with longing. Of course he lives there, but he still isn’t happy with his place there. There are 12 Olymian gods, and he could've very well been one of them. He was denied the opportunity because of his mother already being a god of love, and it was instead given to the god of wine. When Jimin found out, he complained to his best friend about how love was increasingly more important than wine. But if that were the case to the gods, then Jimin would be an Olympian. 

He tears his eyes away from the gates and looks at Heracles instead. “He was here again,” he states. 

“Whom?” Heracles asks. 

“The human from before.” The very first time Taehyung had come here, Jimin had known. He hadn’t actually seen the boy, but he felt it. It had been a weird, daunting feeling but he felt it nonetheless. He’d only been passing by, but once he had gotten the feeling, he decided to understand why he felt the way he did. Unfortunately for him, he only barely saw Taehyung leaving. He’s seen all kinds of things, considering where he lives, so that wasn’t the most disconcerting thought to him. It was the fact that he felt Taehyung’s presence, and that is what lingered in his mind ever since he saw him. 

Suddenly remembering who Jimin was talking about, his friend’s face turns into one of realization. “Oh,” he hums. Jimin had told him about Taehyung the same day he saw him, sans knowing his actual name. To them, he’s simply “the human”, as they address every other mortal. 

“He is not from here… decidedly more so by his dialect.” Jimin gestures with his hands, attempting to display how unusual Taehyung speaks and forms sentences. “And his hair… an unnatural, unflattering color, but it is bearable more than the items he ever so chooses to wear.”

Heracles scoffs, his eyes flickering up to Jimin’s bright head of hair. “Your hair is an abnormal hue of pink, one you would not dare see a human have the capability of wearing.”

Jimin narrows his eyes at his friend, not appreciating the comment. He knows his hair is an abnormal color, but it isn’t as if he chose that. Nevertheless, it suits him more than blond hair will ever Taehyung. “I will shoot you where you stand without hesitation.” After all, they aren’t talking about him. They’re addressing the human. There’s no reason for Heracles to bring up the color of his hair.

He ignores Jimin’s empty threat, opting to ask the question that has been on his mind ever since Jimin mentioned the human the day before, “Is this time an exception, since he does not originate here?”

“It would be a wasted opportunity if I chose to not act upon it. This is what I was made for, Jungkook. You are not ignorant of this information.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!  
> My twitter is @Arreagapng and my friend @Cultmuch helped to make sure I expressed my plot in the best way possible.


End file.
